In a powerful rebuke to one of the game’s most successful teams, the National Football League suspended New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton for a year without pay on Wednesday for his role in a bounty program that promised money to players if they injured opponents and knocked them out of games.

For a league facing dozens of lawsuits related to the damage caused by concussions, the penalty reflected, at minimum, a recognition that it had to take a strong public stand against a part of football culture seen as a threat to player safety.

It was the first time the N.F.L. suspended a head coach for any length of time, and, because of Payton’s outsize influence in the Saints’ organization — he is intimately involved in personnel decisions and calls the offensive plays — the penalty also strips the team of its most important figure. The team pays him more than $7 million a year. The Saints also lost the services of two other top officials for part of next season, and will be fined and will lose two second-round draft picks.

The Saints apologized in a statement that invoked Hurricane Katrina and fans’ loyalty to the team in its aftermath, and took responsibility for the violations.

“It has always been the goal of the New Orleans Saints to create a model franchise and to impact our league in a positive manner,” the team said. “There is no place for bounties in our league and we reiterate our pledge that this will never happen again.”

The punishment also spilled over into St. Louis. The former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, now in the same role in St. Louis, was suspended indefinitely for his role. Jeff Fisher, the Rams’ coach, said Wednesday that he did not know of the bounties when Williams was hired in January.

Williams, whose suspension will be reviewed at the end of the 2012 season, acknowledged that he had designed and administered the program, with the help of some defensive players. It ran from 2009, the year the Saints won the Super Bowl, to 2011 and included bounties on four quarterbacks: Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Kurt Warner and Cam Newton.

The league also suspended the Saints’ general manager, Mickey Loomis, for the first eight games of the season, although he will be allowed to continue working in the off-season. The Saints were fined $500,000 and will lose second-round draft picks in 2012 and 2013. The assistant head coach, Joe Vitt, who said his job was to monitor Williams, and who was aware of the bounty program but never advised Payton or Loomis, was suspended without pay for the first six regular-season games of the 2012 season.

The N.F.L. said discipline for the 22 to 27 players involved in the bounties, including the defensive captain Jonathan Vilma, was still under review with the players union and would be addressed at a later date. Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement that he was “profoundly troubled” by the involvement and enthusiasm of players regarding the bounty program.

The sanctions dwarf those handed down by the N.F.L. against the New England Patriots in 2007 for what became known as Spygate. There were no suspensions when the Patriots were found to have improperly videotaped opponents’ signals, but the Patriots lost a first-round draft pick. Their coach, Bill Belichick, was fined $500,000, and the team was fined an additional $250,000.

The Saints’ penalty seemed designed to get the attention of every team in the league in much the same way the suspensions of the star players Paul Hornung and Alex Karras in the 1960s for gambling sent a message about the league’s lack of tolerance for that activity.

While players have informally exchanged money for big plays like interceptions and fumbles for years — a violation of league rules — the N.F.L. was troubled by a program that blatantly promoted injuring opponents. Moments after the punishment was announced, Goodell issued an edict that every team owner and head coach must certify in writing that no such program existed in their organizations.

“We are all accountable and responsible for player health and safety and the integrity of the game,” Goodell said. “We will not tolerate conduct or a culture that undermines those priorities. No one is above the game or the rules that govern it. Respect for the game and the people who participate in it will not be compromised.”

The severity of the penalties surprised many people around the league. They had assumed that Payton might be suspended for a few games.

Drew Brees, the Saints’ quarterback, wrote on his Twitter page: “I am speechless. Sean Payton is a great man, coach, and mentor. The best there is. I need to hear an explanation for this punishment.”

But others, including players from other teams, said on Twitter the Saints got what they deserved. Goodell has said repeatedly that improving player safety is a primary goal. But players have frequently complained about the punishments they have received for hard hits, and they were watching to see how Goodell handled a situation in which coaches and front-office personnel had committed wrongdoing.

“I think it’s good that every mother in America knows that the N.F.L. is more concerned about the health and welfare and safety of our players,” the Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft said. “You can’t get around that it’s a physical, tough game, but there is a way to play.”

One team executive, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to publicly discuss another team, said he was not surprised by Goodell’s ruling.

“He had to do this,” the executive said. “We spend all this time on player safety only to have this happen? He had to send a message.”

The suspensions can be appealed and Goodell would make the final decision on them.

In its statement, the N.F.L. said its investigation established the existence of an active bounty program. The inquiry also revealed that there were repeated efforts to conceal the program’s existence from investigators, and that multiple members of the franchise lied to the N.F.L., a fact that surely added to the severity of the penalties.

The league said that when Payton was interviewed this year about the bounties, he claimed to be unaware of the program, which was contradicted by others who had been interviewed. The investigation found that before the Saints’ season-opening game in 2011 against the Green Bay Packers, Payton received an e-mail from a close associate — believed to be Mike Ornstein, a marketing agent who is a convicted felon — that stated, in part, “PS Greg Williams put me down for $5000 on Rogers.” When Payton was shown the e-mail during the investigation, he acknowledged that it was a bounty on Rodgers, the Packers’ quarterback.

Williams also acknowledged that when he was first questioned about bounties in early 2010, he intentionally misled investigators and did not do anything to stop the program even after he became aware of the league’s investigation. The N.F.L. also said that in early 2010, Loomis told Payton that the league office was investigating allegations concerning a bounty program. Payton told investigators that he met with his top two defensive assistants, Williams and Vitt, in advance of the interview with league investigators and told them, “Let’s make sure our ducks are in a row.”

“Remarkably, Coach Payton claimed that he never inquired of Coach Williams and Coach Vitt as to what happened in the interviews, never asked them if a ‘pay-for-performance’ or bounty program was in fact in place, and never gave any instructions to discontinue such a program,” the league said in its statement.

The N.F.L. said that after releasing its initial findings, it continued to investigate, as reports emerged that there were similar programs at other teams where Williams had coached. The league said no evidence was found to show that programs existed that involved targeting opponents for injuries. Goodell said that if additional information was found, he would revisit the investigation and consider disciplining other teams.

A version of this article appears in print on March 22, 2012, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: N.F.L. Bars Coach of Saints A Year Over Bounty Program. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe